Dr. Watson's first name is mentioned on only four occasions.

Part one of the very

first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, is subtitled Being a reprint from the
Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department.[3]
The preface of the collection His Last Bow is signed 'John H. Watson, M.D', and in
"The Problem of Thor Bridge", Watson says that his dispatch box is labeled 'John H.
Watson, M.D'.[4] His wife Mary Watson calls him 'James' in "The Man with the
Twisted Lip"; Dorothy L. Sayers speculates that Mary may be referring to his middle
name Hamish (an Anglicisation of 'Sheumais', the vocative form of 'Seumas', the
Scottish Gaelic for James), though Doyle himself never addresses this beyond
including the initial.[5]

In A Study in Scarlet, Watson, as the narrator, establishes having received his

medical degree from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the
University of London in 1878, and subsequently being trained at Netley as an
assistant surgeon in the British Army. (In a non-canonical story, "The Field Bazaar",
Watson is described as having received his Bachelor of Medicine from Doyle's alma
mater, Edinburgh University; this would likely have been in 1874.)[6] He joined
British forces in India with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers before being attached
to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan
War, was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand (July 1880) by a Jezail bullet,[Note 1]
suffered enteric fever and was sent back to England on the troopship HMS Orontes
following his recovery.[7] With his health ruined, he was then given a monthly
pension of 11 shillings/9 pence for nine months.

In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Sherlock Holmes, who is

looking for someone to share rent at a flat in 221B Baker Street. Concluding that
they are compatible, they subsequently move into the flat. When Watson notices
multiple eccentric guests frequenting the flat, Holmes reveals that he is a
"consulting detective" and that the guests are his clients.[8]

Watson witnesses Holmes' skills of deduction on their first case together, concerning
a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When the case is solved, Watson is
angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press. When Holmes
refuses to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to
do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends.

In The Sign of the Four, John Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a
governess. In "The Adventure of the Empty House", a reference by Watson to "my
own said bereavement" implies that Morstan has died by the time Holmes returns
after faking his death; that fact is confirmed when Wa